


Forgotten Valentines

by IvyCpher



Category: Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby (2013)
Genre: Fluff, Jay Gatsby Lives, M/M, Valentine's Day, Valentine's Day Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-23
Updated: 2020-01-23
Packaged: 2021-02-27 15:15:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,849
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22379323
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IvyCpher/pseuds/IvyCpher
Summary: Nick makes Gatsby a  Valentine's Day card.
Relationships: Nick Carraway/Jay Gatsby
Comments: 7
Kudos: 143





	Forgotten Valentines

Nick hardly even remembered Valentine's Day until he went to the bakery to pick up some bread and saw pink, heart shaped sugar cookies for sale. He wasn't surprised that he didn't remember it, he often didn't. But this year was different, this year he was with Jay so he thought that he ought to have known when it was. Thank god for him being out of bread that day or he probably would have only remembered Valentine's once the day had passed.

When Nick got home that day he made himself a sandwich and checked his calendar, he still had a week before Valentine's Day. He hoped that that would give him enough time to get Jay something satisfactory. Shopping for Jay was harder than anything considering that Jay had everything and anything that he didn't have he had the funds to buy. So instead of buying him something, Nick thought it would be best to make Jay something. Despite giving up on his dream on becoming an author, Jay was always supportive and highly interested in Nick's written works. He thought that maybe he could try to write Jay something then for a Valentine's gift.

Writing something for Jay, however, was harder than Nick had previously thought.

Nick had no experience writing anything even slightly romantic, nor did he consider himself to be a very romantic person. He figured that normal Valentine's Day cards were filled with soft, loving words for your partner, and he wanted to try and make his own words like that for Jay; but they just wouldn't come. He would type a sentence out on his typewriter and then immediately pull out the paper and toss it away. Each idea he came up with didn't sound right or he figured it wasn't something that Jay would enjoy.

Writing for Nick had never been as hard as it was that week before Valentine's Day.

He wasted so much paper, so much ink, and so many hours of just trying to find the perfect words.

But then, one night just before bed, two days before Valentine's Day when Nick had just about given up and had decided to buy Jay a box of candy and an overstuffed bear or something, the perfect words had seemingly just floated into his head. He quickly put a bookmark in the book he had been reading, and threw off the covers of his bed. Nick had jumped out of bed and flew across his small bedroom to his desk with his typewriter. He put a new sheet of paper in it, and then his fingers flew across the keys with scattered clicks and taps.

_ Your smile lights up the room of fake grins. _

_ Your laugh makes the lights blink and the floors shake. _

_ Your kind care for people makes me care for you more than you could know. _

_ Your pet names and constant phone calls have me always up and swooning. _

The words seemed to pour out of Nick like water from a running faucet. He didn't know where they were coming from and if he stopped to think about them, he knew that his sudden geyser of creativity would go dry just as quickly as it sprouted.

_ My thoughts about the future were always fuzzy, and they still are but in every single dream I can always pinpoint you and me. _

_ I never much liked the beach until I sat on it with you, Jay. _

_ No matter how many times I wash my clothes, they still smell like you- your oranges and the scent of cold champagne. _

_ In the whole world of grand parties, yours are second best, second best to you, because you're a party of the best kind. A party of smiles, laughs, and sheer willpower. A party of crazy ideas, gambles, and love. _

_ Dear, Jay, _ Nick wrote on a new line on the bottom of the page.  _ I love you and I hope to never stop loving you. _

And just like the spurt of creativity had come, it stopped. But that was okay because Nick knew what he had come up with was perfect. He carefully tore the paper from his typewriter and stood up, his chair loudly pushing back across the floor. Thank god he had bought all the supplies he needed to make Jay's card ahead of time.

Nick looked at the clock on the wall and saw that it was nearing 11 PM, he had a shift tomorrow morning at the bond office at 7 AM. He knew it wasn't the best decision, but he just wanted to finish Jay's card. It had taken him so long to think of the proper words to put in it, it would feel wrong leaving the present half finished. 

With his poem in hand, Nick walked out of his bedroom and into the hall. He turned on the light at the top of the stairs and ran down them so fast that he nearly slipped on the last one. He only caught himself by grabbing the banister with his free hand. Nick stopped at the bottom of the steps and took in a deep breath, covering his heart with his hand that was holding the poem. He was just happy he didn't accidentally scrunch up the poem, if he did, he would have to write it again. He was also happy that he didn't fall on his ass of course, but having to rewrite the poem would have been a worse pain.

Nick walked into the kitchen and pulled the cord on the ceiling fan above the small table. He put the poem down and then went back into the sitting room where the steps opened to get his supplies. He had to keep everything hidden, his pink coloured paper and a small can of paste, so that if Jay came over he wouldn't ask questions about it. Because if Jay came over and  _ did  _ see it, Nick knew that his horrible lying capabilities would have gave his surprise away. It was all stashed away in a drawer of an end table by the sofa. He pulled open the drawer and grabbed his paper and can of paste, then headed back into the kitchen.

Nick put his supplies down on the kitchen table then fumbled around the messy kitchen drawers for a pair of scissors and a pen. After finding a pair of scissors and a spare pen, he finally sat down at the kitchen table to set to work. Nick grabbed one of the sheets of pink paper from the small stack and carefully folded it in half so that the sides would be perfectly even. On the front of the paper in his neatest script, he wrote ' _ Happy Valentine's Day' _ with a large heart underneath. Then he grabbed his scissors and cut out the poem he had wrote so that it would fit inside the card. And then finally he unscrewed the can of paste and brushed on a fair amount on to the back of his poem before pressing it to the inside of his card.

By the end of his work Nick had glue drying on the tips of his fingers and paper scraps littering his floor, but it was fine because he had  _ finally  _ finished his card for Jay. Under the poem he sketched out three crude hearts and a small line of ' _ xoxoxo' _ s. The hugs and kisses part was childish, but he liked them, and a Valentine wasn't a Valentine without them. He could only hope that Jay would like them and the rest of the card too.

All the energy that Nick just had to finish the card disappeared as soon as the card was done. With a yawn he decided that he could clean up the kitchen after work the next evening. He stood up, grabbed the still drying card, and headed upstairs for bed.

***

Valentine's Day was luckily on a Saturday that year so Nick didn't have to call off work to spend it with Jay. Long before Nick had finished Jay's card, on the day he was reminded that Valentine's Day existed actually, he had called Jay and made plans to spend Valentine's Day with him at his house. Jay had agreed to the idea in a second.

When Valentine's Day finally rolled around, Nick was excited. He had never spent a Valentine's Day together with another person, but despite that he wasn't anxious about it. Before Nick went over to Jay's that day he dressed in a pink sweater over a crisp, white dress shirt and dark slacks. He had bought the pink sweater because of Jay's love for the colour and that day was the first that Nick would get to wear it for him.

Nick walked across his lawn with Jay's card and a box of chocolates in hand, the chocolate had been a last minute buy for Jay but Nick didn't know if it was proper to only get someone a card on Valentine's Day. He smiled to himself as he walked through the open gate into Jay's back lawn and around his drained and covered pool to his back door. Even before they had started dating, Jay always told Nick that he needn't knock before he came over, but he always did.

Nick knocked on the back door twice before pulling it open and stepping into Jay's mansion. "Hey, Jay," He said, shutting the door behind him. "You home?" The back door opened into a large hall that flowed like a river around the house's first level. Follow it one way and you would walk into the kitchen, or follow it another and end up in the front foyer.

"Nick, how many times have I told you that you don't have to knock?" Jay rounded the corner, seemingly appearing out of nowhere. Nick had the sudden thought that his boyfriend was almost like a ghost, haunting the halls of his own mansion. There was a smile on his face as he stepped toward Nick and quickly kissed his cheek, his hand falling to Nick's elbow.

Nick smiled, "At least a dozen times," He returned Jay's kiss.

With a roll of his eyes, Jay smiled, "You look nice today, I never see you in pink." He dropped his hand from Nick's elbow to wrap it around his waist, "I like it, usually it's me who sports the pink. Does this mean you want me to purchase an emerald suit?" He teased, leading Nick down the halls to the sitting room.

"Stop," Nick jokingly elbowed Jay in the ribs and shook his head softly. "I hoped you'd like it." He looked down at his sweater and then suddenly remembered the card and chocolates in his hands. "Oh-" Jay had a bad habit of making Nick forget things in just a second. "I can't believe I forgot. Happy Valentine's Day." He held up the card and chocolates to Jay as they walked. "I nearly forgot the whole day to be honest."

Jay looked at the card and chocolates in Nick's hands then slowed to a stop at the threshold of the sitting room. "Valentine's Day?" He asked confusedly as Nick handed him the gifts. "What- but it can't be. Valentine's Day is.. well it's not today, is it? It's in March."

Nick took a step away from Jay, he knit his brows together in confusion. "What? No? Why- Jay…" He smiled softly. Jay was one of the smartest men he knew, he had built himself up from nothing and had a whole gang of people who loved him. But he was also really thick in the head when he wanted to be. "Valentine's Day is in February. I don't mind that you forgot it," He said reassuringly. "You don't have to get me anything it's fine, just maybe get yourself a calendar…"

Jay looked so confused that it was almost funny. "I thought for sure that if was in March- are you sure it's not in March?"

Nick bit back a laugh and wrapped his arm around Jay's shoulders. "I swear, Jay, it's in February." He lead Jay to the sofa in the sitting room and sat him down on it. "February fourteenth, today." He sat down beside him and kissed his cheek.

Jay was quiet for a moment, "Well this is embarrassing-" He finally said. "You probably think I'm a bit of an idiot now," He laughed softly, leaning gently on Nick.

"Oh not more than usual."

Jay gasped and wrapped his arm around Nick's neck, "Really, Nicky- haven't you bullied me enough for one day?" He grinned, kissing Nick's cheek. "You have to get your sick kicks out of belittling your  _ helpless  _ boyfriend?"

This time Nick was unable to keep his laugh hidden. With Jay leaning on him, he fell into the arm of the sofa and didn't bother to try and push Jay off him. "' _ Helpless' _ ?" He grinned, "Jay, you're anything but helpless." He rolled his eyes, "Come on, why don't you open the card? It took me forever to make."

Jay was suddenly off of Nick in a second, though he still sat very close to him. "You made this?" He asked, looking from the card to Nick, "You're too sweet." He said softly, opening the card.

As Jay read besides him, he started to lean on Nick again. Nick looked away from the card in Jay's hands. He couldn't take the embarrassment that would come from seeing Jay read it, he was also happy that his boyfriend wasn't the type of person to read things aloud. Because if he was, Nick knew that he would probably shrivel up and die. His poem had sounded so good when he originally wrote it, but now that Jay was reading it, Nick was beginning to worry that it sounded cheesy.

Nick was so lost in his mind, in his critical thoughts about his work, that he didn't even notice that Jay had finished reading the card until Jay grabbed him by the collar of his shirt and pulled him into a kiss.

Kisses from Jay when Nick least expected them was certainly not an uncommon thing in their relationship, Nick only wished that their kiss would have lasted longer. When Jay pulled away, Nick couldn't help but smile. Jay's face was as pink as Nick's sweater and he was looking at Nick so tenderly that Nick thought that his heart was going to melt like a bowl of butter left out in the sun.

"Nick Carraway," Jay breathed, pressing his forehead against Nick's. "You are the best writer of the century… I wish you wouldn't throw away your words for stocks and bonds."

Nick looked down, unable to meet Jay's eyes, "You're just saying that, besides, writing isn't a steady career. I'd have to eat my own books just to keep from starving."

"You know you don't have to worry about money. I have money."

"I'm fine, Jay, besides who would read my books anyways?" Nick asked, pulling slowly away from Jay. His face felt hot and he knew he had to be as pink as Jay.

"The whole world, Nick!"

"They already have then, because you're my whole world, Jay." Nick said, straightening the collar of his undershirt. "I'm happy you liked it," He said quickly, before Jay could respond to his last comment.

Jay grabbed his hand, "I love all your work, Nick… Now you've got me feeling even worse for forgetting today. Are you sure you're fine with me not getting you anything?"

"I'm certain," Nick sighed, still smiling. "I don't need anything- you know how small my place is."

Jay looked at Nick for a moment with a determined expression, then he pulled Nick into his chest and hugged him. "I'm going to get you something."

"Jay- you already spend too much money on me. You don't need to."

"I  _ want  _ to."

"Please- I'm fine."

With a sigh, Jay rapped his fingers on Nick's chest. "Then tell me something I can do for you, Nick. If you won't let me buy you something it's the least I can do, you wrote me such a beautiful card. Let me repay you."

Nick thought for a moment then turned around in Jay's arms, "Fine, if you really must do something for me then you-" He reached behind Jay and grabbed the box of chocolates he bought him. "Can sit here with me so we can share these chocolates together and have a quiet Valentine's Day."

With a roll of his eyes, Jay plucked the box of chocolates out of Nick's hands. "Fine," He said taking the lid off the box. He grabbed one of the chocolates and brought it to his lips. "But this isn't going to stop me from getting you an  _ actual  _ Valentine's Day gift later." And when Nick opened his mouth to argue with him, Jay quickly shoved the chocolate in his mouth. "No objections this time?" Jay smirked as Nick was stuck eating the chocolate. "Perfect," He said, leaning forward to kiss Nick's forehead. 

**Author's Note:**

> I don't know where this idea came from but heck! It is way longer than I thought it'd be!
> 
> Is this in character? I can't tell.. I haven't read the book in so long...
> 
> Comments are very much appreciated!!!


End file.
